Toward a "modern" Emacs

VSCode is not superior to Emacs as a *text* editor. VSCode as an editor (with the default settings) is essentially Windows Notepad embedded in an IDE. Basic usage depends heavily on reaching for the arrow keys and the mouse or trackpad. Of course, VSCode supports more complex editing commands, but they all have esoteric key bindings you will have to learn, and they all have functional equivalents in Emacs.

Now, as an IDE for, say, working on a Java project VSCode is far superior to Emacs. Install the Java Extension Pack with a few clicks and you have Java syntax highlighting and checking, completion and automatic imports. Not only that, you get support for building the project within VSCode, and an integrated debugger out of the box. For these reasons, I use VSCode instead of Emacs when working with Java, *but* with the Vim emulator extension to be able to use a real text editor.

By the way, I find it funny that, when talking about CUA (Common User Access), the examples given are the Ctrl-X, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V key bindings. These key bindings are not in the CUA document, they were introduced by the Apple Macintosh as Command-{X,C,V}, and later ported to Windows as Ctrl-{X,C,V}. In CUA the Cut command is Shift+Del, Copy is Ctrl+Ins and Paste is Shift+Ins.